MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS

SPECIES: Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Many wildlife species use Sambucus spp. for food [41,64]. It provides
valuable cover, perching, and nesting sites; its fruit provides food for
many species of birds including bluebirds, magpies, warbling vireo,
western tanager, house finch, green-tailed towhee, woodpeckers,
grosbeaks, Townsend solitaire, grouse, quail, pheasant, and hummingbirds
who visit flowers for nectar [19,25,41,75,90]. It also provides cover
and food for other wildlife including rabbits, squirrels, foxes,
woodchucks, chipmunks, ground squirrels, woodrats, mice [41], and
ring-tailed cats in California riparian zones [2]. Early in the year
blue elderberry is less palatable and thus unimportant as browse for
domestic livestock [9,65]. Mule deer also show seasonal preferences for
blue elderberry [37]. When fed to captive mule deer in Utah from May 1
to September 30, it was a preferred food [73]. It was used throughout
the period, but with highest use early in May and again in August and
September. Captive mule deer used blue elderberry lightly in the winter
[71,74]. Elk use blue elderberry both summer and fall [77,95].
Seasonal mule deer use varies by community type with highest use in
October in the aspen (Populus tremuloides) and spruce-fir (Picea
engelmanni-Abies concolor) types and in July in the shrub-browse type
[72]. Blue elderberry is a more important deer browse than red
elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) [73].
PALATABILITY :
Blue elderberry is a palatable browse plant that is sought and consumed
in excess of its relative importance in the vegetative community by elk
[37,95] and deer [72]. In the spring the foliage of blue elderberry may
be strongly scented when bruised and less palatable. By fall,
especially following frost, it sweetens and becomes more palatable
[9,58]. The highly palatable buds and dried fruit are used in winter by
big game animals [58].
The degree of use shown by livestock and wildlife species for blue
elderberry in several western states is rated as follows [10,65,77]:
ID CO MT UT WY CA
Cattle mod-good fair fair fair ---- fair
Sheep mod-good fair good good ---- good-fair
Horses ---- fair poor poor ---- ----
Goats ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- good
Pronghorn ---- ---- ---- poor poor ----
Elk good ---- ---- good fair ----
Mule deer ---- ---- ---- good good ----
White-tailed
deer ---- ---- ---- ---- good ----
Deer ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- good-poor
Small mammals ---- ---- fair good fair ----
Small nongame
birds ---- good fair good good ----
Upland game
birds ---- ---- fair good good ----
Waterfowl ---- ---- ---- poor poor ----
Black bear mod-poor ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
Blue elderberry's energy value is rated as fair and its protein value as
poor [10]. Gordon and Sampson [17] list specific values for total ash,
silica, silica-free ash, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, crude protein,
and crude fiber for plant parts sampled during two growing seasons.
Protein values are high in the early leaf stage and decrease with
maturity. Potassium and phosphorus contents also decrease with
maturity, while ash and calcium contents increase. Blue elderberry is
important as late season browse because of a fairly high level of
protein and essential inorganics when herbaceous plants are at their
lowest nutritional ebb.
COVER VALUE :
Blue elderberry provides nesting habitat for a number of bird species in
Arizona including the Dusky flycatcher, MacGillivary warbler,
orange-crowned warbler, broad-tailed hummingbird, white-crowned sparrow,
and Lincoln sparrow [4]. It also provides nest cover and nest support
for the Least Bell's Vireo [18].
The degree to which blue elderberry provides environmental protection
during one or more seasons for wildlife species is as follows [10].
MT UT WY
Pronghorn ---- poor poor
Elk ---- fair fair
Mule deer ---- good good
White-tailed deer ---- ---- good
Small mammals poor good fair
Small nongame birds poor good good
Upland game birds poor good fair
Waterfowl ---- poor poor
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
Blue elderberry has been selected for planting in the Intermountain West
because of its forage and cover value, productivity, adaptability, and
ease of establishment [58,59]. It is also a useful ground cover for
stabilizing eroding sites [58]. It is adapted for use in the forested,
northern desert shrub, pinyon-juniper (Pinus edulis-Juniperus spp.), and
mountain brush zones [43,58,76]. In Oregon and California it is being
used for riparian plantings [5,15] and streambank stabilization
plantings [39]. Seeding blue elderberry may improve forage production in
some disturbed Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) communities in Utah [81].
Blue elderberry seeds may be planted directly, or seedlings and 1- to
2-year old stock may be transplanted. It also grows from cuttings and
rootstocks [58,75]. Best establishment in Utah has been obtained by
direct seeding [58], but establishment can be erratic [59]. Ratings of
suitability include [58]:
Very Medium Very
Good Good or Fair Poor Poor
Initial establishment X
Growth rate X
Final establishment X
Persistence X
Germination X
Seed production and
handling X
Planting ease X
Natural spread X
Herbage yield X
Availability of
current growth X
Soil stability X
Range of adaptation X
Resistance to disease
and insects X
Compatibility with
other plants X
Ease of transplanting X
Studies of reclaimed mining sites give specific information about
planting methods and survival. In a Utah coal field at Alton it had a
survival rate of 68 percent, but only reached 18 inches (46 cm) 6 years
after planting [13]. Blue elderberry had difficulty on untreated acid
spoils in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California with survival rates
of 23 percent for the first year and 10 percent by the third year. In
competition with seeded grass no blue elderberry survived. On mine
spoils the shade of blue elderberry may aid the establishment of other
species [43]. Initial survival was good on Montana roadcuts, but
decreased to 30 percent after 4 years and to one plant after 9 years
[29]. Factors that influenced this mortality appeared to be the hot,
dry slopes and infertile, rocky soil.
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
The fruit of blue elderberry is frequently gathered for wine, jellies,
candy, pies, and sauces [49,60] and it is cultivated commercially in
Oregon. Native Americans gathered the fruit to cook, dry, or to eat
raw. They used a liquid made from the flowers and leaves for medicinal
purposes [86]. In the spring the young vegetative sprouts can be cooked
and eaten; however, some caution should be used in eating elderberries
since other species in the genus contain a cyanogenetic glycoside and an
alkaloid that can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and gastrointestinal
pain [33,80]. The berries contain very little of these substances,
while the roots contain enough to cause death in hogs, and intermediate
amounts are found in the stems. A dye can be made from the bark and an
insecticide from the dried leaves of elderberry [60]. The name Sambucus
is derived from the Greek sambuca which was a stringed instrument
supposed to be made from elder wood. The hollow stems have been
fashioned into flutes and blowguns. The wood is hard and has been used
for combs, spindles, and pegs [49].
OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Browsing: Blue elderberry is persistant and recovers well from heavy
grazing in the Great Basin [43,58]. In Oregon grasslands grazing
pressure may cause it to decrease, and in the mountains of northern New
Mexico blue elderberry may increase from 5 percent to 20 percent under
grazing pressure on various sites [91].
Competition: In the Douglas-fir/twinflower-pinegrass (Pseudotsuga
menziesii/Linnaea borealis-Calamagrostis rubescens) habitat type,
clear-cutting or seed tree cutting with high soil surface disturbance
caused by dozer scarification and slash removal favors blue elderberry
and leads to a blue elderberry-prickly currant/elk sedge (Sambucus
cerulea-Ribes lacustre/Carex geyeri) seral community type [22].
Chemical control: Picloram pellets are moderately effective on blue
elderberry [8].

BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

SPECIES: Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Blue elderberry is a short lived, shade intolerant (or slightly tolerant
[58]) shrub or small tree [50,61], usually between 6.5 to 13 feet (2 to
4 m) tall, but sometimes reaching 20 feet (6 m) [6,27]. Young twigs are
soft and pithy but the wood is quite hard [49] with grayish bark [76] or
thin, dark brown irregularly furrowed and ridged bark [56]. There may
be a thick taproot with fibrous, spreading, lateral roots [20,69]. The
leaves are opposite and odd-pinnate with five to nine serrate leaflets
[56]. The flowers are perfect, white or cream colored, and borne in a
cyme. The entire inflorescence is about 1.6 to 5.9 (7.9) inches (4 to
15 [20] cm) across and nearly flat topped. The fruit is globose, edible,
and blue-black with a glaucous bloom that makes it appear to be powder
blue [6,27,56].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Reproduction of blue elderberry is sexual through small nutlets, three
to five of which are contained in each edible, berrylike fruit [27,76].
There are good seed crops almost every year, and the seeds are dispersed
by birds and other animals that eat the fruit [20,86]. Seeds retain
their viability for up to 16 years in storage [20]. Blue elderberry
seeds have a hard seed coat and dormant embryos that delay germination
[58]. Heat treatment or sulfuric acid scarification and stratification
hasten germination. Detailed descriptions of seed gathering and
germination are in Schopmeyer [68], Heit [26], Landis and Simonich [38],
Shaw [69], and Stanton [75]. Without treatment, germination of
seedlings may be delayed from 2 to 5 years after planting.
Seedlings of blue elderberry develop extensively branched shoot systems
with numerous large leaves [69]. They also grow expansive root systems
that make it difficult to cultivate blue elderberry seedlings in seed
beds [38,69]. Seedlings may bloom and bear fruit by their 2nd or 3rd
year [16]. Plants can reach full size in 3 to 4 years in the
Intermountain region [58].
Vegetative reproduction is limited to vigorous coppicing if the stems
are killed or injured [61,90].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Blue elderberry prefers moist, well-drained sunny sites [9,76,75,90].
Thus it is found as a seral species on forested sites where it may
persist in openings, in ravines, and alongside roads in drier habitat
types, and as a riparian species in California's Central Valley and in
Arizona [2,4,16,25]. In the Northwest it grows in valley bottoms and on
open slopes with sufficient moisture [6,27]. It is the most common
elderberry in eastern Oregon and Washington and is generally found along
fence rows or in stream valleys [24]. In Utah it is found in the
riparian, sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), mountain brush, pinyon-juniper
(Pinus edulis-Juniperus utahensis), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa),
aspen (Populus tremuloides), and spruce-fir (Picea engelmannii-Abies
lasiocarpa) communities [58,93]. Near the limits of its range it is
more restricted. In southeastern British Columbia and Vancouver Island
it is found only in the valley bottoms where the growing seasons are
longer [20]. In western Colorado it grows along creeks, in valleys, and
at the base of cliffs [23]. In Arizona it is found locally in boreal,
riparian shrublands and becomes more important below 8,500 feet (2,591
m) [4]. In general, blue elderberry is more common on warmer sites than
the closely related red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), although their
preferred sites overlap [34].
Soils: Blue elderberry grows on a variety of soils from gravelly or
stony [28] to heavy clay loam [11]. However, growth is good on loam,
and sandy loam soils; fair to good on sand; fair to poor on clay or
gravel and poor on dense clay. There is no consensus about elderberry's
growth on organic and acidic soils; however, there is agreement that it
grows poorly on saline, sodic, and saline-sodic soils, and optimum soil
depth is given as 20+ inches (51 cm) [10]. Mueggler [50] found that
elderberries were associated with soils that contained 5.6 to 8.0+
percent organic matter.
Elevation: Blue elderberry is most common from sea level to moderate
elevations in the mountains [9,27]. However, it grows to 10,000 feet in
California (3,048 m) [54] and 9,514 feet (2,900 m) in the Pacific
Northwest [6]. In western Colorado it is reported at 5,500 to 8,000
feet (1,692 to 2,438 m) [23].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Blue elderberry is a short lived seral species that is shade intolerant
[50,61] or slightly shade tolerant [58]. It is a component of the seral
shrub field complex that can inhibit tree regeneration following fire in
moist Northwest forests but it is seldom a primary competitor
[7,20,50]. In an Idaho study elderberries were absent from stands
where over 40 years had passed since fire [50]. In open forests,
woodlands, chaparral or riparian zones, blue elderberry can remain in
the community, usually as scattered individuals rather than assuming
dominance [2,4,16,25,51,52].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
The average dates of phenological events in Montana and Idaho are presented
below [67].
Average Date Average Date
West of the East of the
Continental Divide Continental Divide
Leaf Buds Burst 4/30 6/1
Leaves Full Grown 6/4 6/28
Flowers Start 6/2 6/27
Flowers End 6/28 7/16
Fruits Ripe 8/21 8/22
Seed Fall Starts 9/18
Leaves Start to
Color and Wither 8/31
Leaves Begin to Fall 9/19
Leaves Fallen 10/12 9/20
In Idaho May to July is the flowering time [56]. In California bloom is
from June to September with fruiting in September [54]. In Utah bloom
occurs in July and August with fruiting from August to October [86].

FIRE ECOLOGY

SPECIES: Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Blue elderberry is fire tolerant [1]. Although blue elderberry is
favored by fire, its frequency and cover remain relatively low in most
areas where it has been studied [30,50,79]. In Utah [158 blue elderberry
is often prominent in burned areas where it establishes from dormant
seed.
Blue elderberry is able to resprout [61,75,90], and seed buried in seed
banks germinates following fire [26]. Since it is short lived and shade
intolerant, blue elderberry is usually absent from the understory of
closed-canopy forests before fire occurs and must rely on seed banks for
regeneration. There may also be occasional sprouts where plants had been
growing in openings in the prefire forest [45]. Idaho studies found
elderberry seeds consistantly throughout seed bank samples despite the
lack of elderberry plants in the forest understory [34,35,45]. Viable
seed was found to a depth of 3.9 inches (10 cm) [35]. In the Blue
Mountains of Oregon elderberry seed was not consistantly present in
samples from different stands in mixed forests, and it was found in the
top 0.8 inches (2.0 cm) [83].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/soboliferous species root sucker
Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)

FIRE EFFECTS

SPECIES: Sambucus nigra subsp. cerulea
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Fire effects vary with season, severity and intensity, site
characteristics, and the age and vigor of the plants; however, fire
generally kills aboveground parts of blue elderberry which then sprout
vigorously from the root crown [40,61,78]. A severe fire might expose
and kill the root and stem buds from which sprouting occurs. Fire also
scarifies buried seed, and germination usually occurs the first growing
season following the fire [26,45].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Blue elderberry can respond to fire by resprouting, although only one
fire study in California chaparral shows blue elderberry relying on
resprouting [66]. In that study no seedlings of elderberry were found.
Fire also scarifies the hard seed coat and stimulates germination of
buried seeds [26,75,94]. Buried seeds respond to fire very quickly. In
northern Idaho elderberry seedlings established the first growing season
after the fire [45]. There were no new seedlings after that year.
There was some resprouting of shrubs that had been growing in stand
openings as well. In Oregon [46,47,79] blue elderberry responded from
buried seed more strongly on logged and burned plots than on logged but
unburned plots. Blue elderberry dominated several burned plots and only
one or two unburned plots during the 3rd to 5th growing seasons. Other
shrubs were dominant by the 11th to 16th seasons [47,78].
The severity of the fire appeared to make little or no difference to the
frequency of elderberry seedlings in studies of high and low severity
burns after clearcutting in northern Idaho [45,50].
Repeated fires may reduce elderberry [50]. Isaac [30] stated that blue
elderberry spread slowly by seed and so was eliminated by a second fire.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY